Reviews by BEERschlitz:

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Pours into a becker a dull light to medium golden with a thinner white head atop.Aromas of caramel/dough and some light toast,very bread indeed.Sweet dough dominates the flavor with some floral hops but they are light,more bread in the finish.A little sweeter than I expected but not a bad food beer.

I picked up a bottle of Shorts Howlin' Chinaski a couple days ago in their new variety pack for $18.99 at The Lager Mill. It's a new year and Short's is back at it again with a few new beers that I've never had before and I'm in the mood for something on the lighter side today, so lets see how it goes. No visible bottling date, but it just showed up so it's fresh. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a Short's imperial pint glass.

A- The label is ok looking and it isn't the most eye catching. It poured a fairly clear yellow color that took on more of a darker golden color when held to the light with two and a half fingers worth of creamy white head that died down to a thin ring that stayed till the end and it left some nice rings of sticky lacing behind. This is a very nice looking beer, I have no complaints.

S- The aroma starts off with a medium amount of sweetness followed by some malts being the first to show up and they impart some grainy, pale malt and bready aromas with a light biscuty aroma in the background. Up next comes some sweet malts followed by a somewhat lighter amount of earthy and grassy hops. This beer had a nice aroma that seems to be inline with the style.

T- The taste seems to be fairly similar to the aroma and it starts off with a medium amount of sweetness followed by all those malty aspects that I got in the aroma, but there's also a toasted malt aspect that along with the breadyness seems to stick out the most. On the finish comes the hops which impart some earthy, grassy, and spicy hop flavors with the spicy hops sticking out a little more than the rest and it imparts a very light amount of medium bitterness that bordered on being on the lighter side with a bready, toasted malt, and spicy hop aftertaste. This is a nice tasting beer that's pretty true to style.

M- Smooth, clean, crisp, on the thicker side of being light bodied with a nice amount of medium carbonation. The mouthfeel was pretty nice and it worked well with this beer.

Overall I thought this was a nice beer and an above average example of the style, it seems to be pretty much what I would expect from the style with just the right amount of crispness and it had that nice drinkability that I expect from the style. This beer had pretty good drinkability, it was smooth, clean, crisp, not filling, and the taste did a decent job at holding my attention, I could drink a few of these, but I may start to get bored with the taste after a few and I think it would make for a nice beer to enjoy in the summer time. What I like the most about this beer was how true to style it is, it's pretty much exactly what I would expect from the style. What I liked the least about this beer was nothing, there wasn't any off flavors or anything that I would change. I would buy this beer again when I'm in the mood for a Dortmunder and I would recommend it to anyone who likes the style. Overall I thought this was a solid and pretty drinkable beer. I think the extra little bit of hoppiness helps set this beer apart and make it a little unique for the style. Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold is still my favorite of the style, but I would say that this one is my second favorite. Good job guys, thanks for another good easy drinking beer.